Neighbors: Time to help one of our neighbors

One of our neighbors needs our help and I know how wonderful you are when something like this happens.

Calvin Brown of Bernardston was recently diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma and will be out of work for six to 12 months while he undergoes treatment. Calvin is married and the father of a 4-year-old and 6-month-old.

His wife Heather has been able to pick up a couple of extra hours at work each week, but also must be home with their children, so the family is struggling to pay medical and other types of bills.

Friends recently set up a donation jar in a local hair salon, but someone broke into the salon and stole the jar, so they are starting all over.

On Nov. 1, a spaghetti dinner to benefit the family will be held at the United Church of Bernardston, 58 Church St. in Bernardston, to help the family with expenses.

Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children ages 3 to 12. There will be raffle, which will include gift baskets as prizes, as well as a 50-50 raffle.

Please join Calvin’s family for a nice dinner during this difficult time and if you have any questions, you can contact Jen Glazier at 413-648-9312 or email her at memphis26@comcast.net.

I’m sure the family would also appreciate donations if you can’t make it to the dinner, but would like to help anyway. Just make checks out to: The Brown Family, P.O. Box 576, Bernardston, MA 01337.

WOULD YOU PLEASE CONTACT Recorder Editor Chris Harris with information about your holiday bazaar or other holiday event if you want to be included this year in the free calendar in The Recorder’s two gift guides. The deadline is Nov. 15. The gift guides calendars will cover events happening between Nov. 27 and New Year’s Eve. Contact Chris at 413-772-0261, ext. 265 or email her at: charris@recorder.com.

A REMINDER THAT eight of our neighbors will be reading at the Greenfield Annual Word Festival today at 6:30 p.m. at the Solar Store on Fiske Avenue. The readers, who belong to a writing group at the Greenfield Senior Center, range in age from 62 to 92. I know the members of Well Done Writers and know you are really going to enjoy what they’ve written.

OUR NEIGHBOR WILSON ROBERTS will be signing his book “Poet’s Seat” on Saturday at 11 a.m. at World Eye Bookshop. This is Wil’s fourth published novel. This one is about Agent Nathan Hunt, who makes a decision that will change his life and sets in motion a series of events involving the Mafia, the Russian mob, the poetry of Charles Bukowski, and the small fictional town of Graham, Mass., where he has gone to ground as Eddie Sanders, a janitor at the local community college.

IT’S FINALLY HERE! The 4th annual Franklin County Pumpkinfest will be held Saturday from 2 to 9 p.m. on Avenue A in Turners Falls and waste organizers are still looking for volunteers to help take care of trash. Volunteers will help set up lightweight recycling bins, collect recyclables from designated bins, and process materials. Shifts are from 2 to 6 p.m. and 6 to 10 p.m., with breaks in the middle of each shift. Help is also needed on the cleanup crew.

WHILE YOU’RE AT THE PUMPKINFEST, stop in and visit Friend to Friend, a local nonprofit that provides our neighbors with quick financial support during times of need, at its booth on Avenue A. The nonprofit will raffle off prizes and have a “fun photo booth” set up, complete with props. All images will be taken for free and be available for tagging on Facebook.

ALSO, OUR NEIGHBORS Greg and Heather Norwood of Turners Falls, who are parents of 9-year-old Jacob, who has FOXG1 Syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder caused by a mutation on the FOXG1 gene, will hold a coffee can raffle at the Pumpkinfest near Shea Theater on Avenue A on Saturday from 2 to 9 p.m. to raise money for the International FOXG1 Foundation to fund research for treatment of the disorder, which leads to people not being able to walk or talk.

THERE WILL BE A ROAST TURKEY dinner held on Saturday at 6 p.m. in The Community Church of North Orange in Tully. Adults are $10 and children 12 years old and younger are $4. You can make reservations at 978-575-0402.

THE 8TH ANNUAL MAHAR CANCER WALK will be held Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the track behind Ralph C. Mahar Regional School. The walk will celebrate cancer survivors and memorialize those who have lost their lives to the disease. A Survivor Lap will take place at 11 a.m. All funds raised by the event will be used to help local cancer patients.

THE LITERACY PROJECT adult GED students are writing poetry, which they will read on Saturday from 3:30 to 5 p.m. at Taylor’s Tavern on Main Street in Greenfield — all part of the Greenfield Annual Word Festival, which is free and open to the public.

IT’S FINALLY HERE! Greenfield’s Rays of Hope walk and run toward a cure for breast cancer will be Sunday at noon in the Greenfield Energy Park, with registration beginning at 10 a.m., so come on out and “Paint the Town Pink” with survivors and their loved ones.

THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY of Greenfield will present an informative history with a personal slant by David B. Twombly on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at 43 Church St. “Among the Wounded in 1864: A Civil War Diary,” is about David’s great-great-grandfather Alexander S. Twombly and his role in the Civil War as a volunteer minister.

For more information, contact Lindley Wilson at 413-772-6291 or email her at curry@mtdata.com.

BAYSTATE FRANKLIN MEDICAL CENTER will host Spirit of Women’s “Happy, Healthy and Whole: An Evening for Women and Girls” on Thursday from 5:30 to 8 p.m. in the local hospital’s main conference rooms. The program is free and a light supper will be served.

The evening will feature a panel of women’s health experts, which will be leading participants through a self-assessment process to discover what parts of their lives need attention. There will also be free chair massages and a raffle.

For more information and to register (required), call 413-773-2454.

To contact Anita Fritz, send an email to: franklincountyneighbors@gmail.com or call 413-772-0261, ext. 280. You can also reach Anita on Facebook at Anita’s Neighbors. Information may also be sent to: neighbors@recorder.com.